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PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) - Drugmaker Sanofi plans
to cut 1,000 to 2,000 jobs in France, according to French daily
Le Figaro, the latest in a series of cost-cutting moves at the
company, some of whose key drugs face increased competition from
generic rivals.

The jobs targetted will be in the areas of research, the
manufacturing operations of the company's Pasteur vaccines unit
and certain support operations at Sanofi's headquarters, the
newspaper said in a pre-released story from its Thursday
edition, citing unnamed sources.

A Sanofi spokesman declined to comment on the report but
confirmed that a meeting with the company's works council was
due to take place on Thursday, when employment perspectives in
France would be discussed.

In September, Sanofi disclosed plans to shrink its R&D
headcount to 10,000 from 13,000 -- excluding Genzyme, the maker
of drugs for rare genetic disorders, which it bought earlier
this year.

Like other major drugmakers, Sanofi is under pressure from
patent expiries as well as government cuts in health care
spending.

A series of French companies have started discussing
potential job cuts with their unions in recent weeks, including
automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and Bouygues Telecom
. Few layoffs had been announced in the run-up to the
country's May presidential vote, a reticence some attributed to
companies' efforts to avoid becoming a campaign issue.

Earlier on Wednesday, Sanofi announced that it was selling a
19 percent in women's oriented consumer products company Yves
Rocher for an undisclosed sum.
(Reporting By Christian Plumb and Elena Berton; Editing by
Marguerita Choy)